Submitted by wordup on
Spent the last two evenings fishing the backwater above the Chester Dam at about an hour and a half before dark. Fish were rising everywhere at the cloud of bugs on the water. Caddis, green drakes, and all the typical bugs for June on the Henrys Fork were out there. I chose to stick to my go-to fly for still water, the Renegade, and was almost instantly battling a toad. After he was landed it seemed difficult to sneak up to the rising fish as they were all fairly boat shy. We did manage to sneak up and land a couple decent fish.
Yesterday we floated from Ora Bridge to Chester, which was mostly frustrating besides the first hour and last hour of the float. I had a big fish on for about 5 seconds directly cross river from the boat put-in, then had a dry stretch till just up river from the Chester Backwater. My friend caught a nice bow on a nymph setup, then had a good run on the surface with a renegade and tan elk hair caddis right before dark. There were some golden stones on the water earlier in the day.
Seems weird to a novice like me that the traffic on this section of the Henrys Fork is fairly slim compared to other years. Maybe someone knows something I don't, but really can't complain about having the river to yourself! Good luck out there and catch some fish.
